Counterparts
by NikkaHi
Summary: Late nights at Starbucks can give you some interesting facts of life.


**Heads-up: Heavily unbetaed and just pure randomness, had to get this out of my brain - it was interfering with my other (boring) brain-activity. **

* * *

Two years ago when Akaya had entered college, finally completing the old team again, he had also gotten a part-time job at the Starbucks located on campus. After his first week he had reported to the rest of the old gang, who rarely had time to spend together now, about an unnerving discovery.

.

_They had gathered at Niou's apartment for a late-night film marathon and just decided which film to watch. _

'_Hey guys,' Akaya had begun hesitantly, catching everyone's attention at his unusual tone. 'I had a very weird experience during work…'_

'_What? A cute girl actually dared to order something from you?' Niou teased as he sat down in one of the couches next to Yaguu, a beer in hand._

'_No,' Akaya bit back before he returned to his previous hesitant mood. 'I got the evening shift two days ago and there is this real pretty girl sitting at the corner booth all alone studying something-'_

'_That's weird, why would a college student study?' Niou said sarcastically._

'_Niou, let him finish,' Yukimura said finally and gave said man a look, to which he sighed in defeat._

'_Anyway, after a while some other girls come in and Kobachi takes their orders as if they were the regulars of the regulars, not even asking for what they wanted but just gave it to them. But that's not the weird part, though it is weird,' Akaya rambled._

'_Ayaka, get to the point,' Sanada cut in._

'_Right, well they acted like… well, us,' Akaya finally said and the others were quiet for a full ten seconds before they broke out laughing. _

'_Sure Akaya, sure,' Niou said and wiped his tears away with the back of his hand._

_From that point on they did not mention that happening again and Akaya had been so angry about their teasing that he had refused to speak with them for two weeks afterwards. _

_._

That was about two years ago. They never really believed Akaya until they, by some accident they still cannot remember, all gathered at Starbucks late one night.

Akaya had just gotten off his shift and brought them all a few snacks before he sat down opposite Marui in the booth when the glass doors swung open and a pretty young woman in black heels stepped in.

'Ah, that's her,' Akaya said as he watched her put her order to his co-worker.

'Her?' Jackal echoed from his seat between Marui and Niou.

'The girl from the group I told you about a while ago,' he said and none of the others seemed to remember. 'The group of girls that are like us,' he specified and sighed, the others suddenly seemed to remember.

'And who is she out of us?' Niou asked humorously as he looked the girl over, not entirely displeased by the look of it.

'Yaguu,' Akaya asked without hesitation. 'I think she study Law or something, she's always dressed in a suit-ish way.'

'Suit-ish is not a word, Akaya,' Yaguu said and pushed his glasses higher up on his nose.

'I know, but it fitted and you understand what I mean,' Akaya shrugged.

The woman walked over to the booth in the corner, two booths away from theirs, and her heels made a _click-clack_ noise that cut through everything. She nodded once politely as she passed them as she noticed them looking and slid into the booth effortlessly and out of sight.

Five minutes later three other women, on three completely different spots on the spectrum, pushed the glass doors open and headed for the counter. There was a short dark haired girl with her hair in two pigtails, practically bouncing where she stood and talking about something animatedly with a blond woman in a colourful dress and dolled face. The last of them were about the same height as the blond woman but dressed in a stylish way and seemed to be trying to get the other two to calm down as to not disturb the other costumers.

'Marui, Jackal and Niou,' Akaya answered their question. 'Niou being the doll.'

'Hey, I don't look like that,' he defended hotly.

'I'm not basing things on looks, its personality.'

'She looks far too innocent to be Niou's counterpart,' Yaguu stated lowly as they passed their table, completely oblivious to the stares of the guys. 'The others I can see some resemblance in.'

Twenty minutes after that a tired looking woman with bluish hair pushed into a messy I-could-not-care-less-bun ignored the counter and stumbled straight to the corner booth where she practically collapsed.

'Akaya,' the guys said collectively and said guy frowned slightly but nodded nevertheless.

'Never quite been able to guess what she does, though, never seen her study,' Akaya said and peeked out from the booth to try to get a glimpse of her.

'Like you then,' Niou remarked with a smirk.

'I study! Just not when you are around,' Akaya defended as the doors opened yet again.

Two rather tall women stepped in, murmuring quietly between themselves as they headed over to the counter. The shorter of the two had lime-green glasses that she seemed to constantly push up on her nose, while the taller sported a tight jacket that she straightened out every few minutes.

Before they had been able to finish their order the doors opened and a ginger woman in jeans glided over to them and said something to the barista, smiling challenging at the tall woman who sighed and nodded.

As they passed the guys snapped up a part of their conversation.

'You were waiting for us to come, weren't you?' the woman with the glasses said, amusement obvious in her voice.

'Free tea is not a laughing matter,' the ginger winked. 'But for you to allow it,' she added as she turned to the tall woman on her right. 'That would be-' she glanced at the other woman who smiled.

'Tarundoru, right?' the two said in perfect synch and laughed all the way to the corner booth as the tall woman only pulled her lips into a thin line and followed.

There was a long silence at the guys' table after that, while the booth the girls occupied was everything _but_ quiet. Loud laughs, snide remarks, rebuking comments and several shrieks of 'hands off' filled the café. The workers seemed to be used to it as they only laughed as the one with pigtails and the one who looked almost like a doll dashed around the room, the smaller holding, what they assumed was, the other's coffee.

'See what I mean?' Akaya said finally to the shocked group of college males.

'Listen closely, brat, because I'm not going to say it again,' said Niou. 'I'm sorry I doubted you, you were right.'

The others mumbled their agreements as the tall woman called the running women back, her voice booming through the room without much effort. Though it got the desired effect and the two instantly returned to the booth, squeezing into their original seats.

'I'm the ginger one, right?' Yukimura mumbled to Yanagi when the others had returned to speaking about whatever they had been before the arrival of the girls.

'… Yes,' Yanagi replied and gave Yukimura a look.

'Just making sure,' Yukimura said offhandedly.

It was about an hour later that Yanagi and Yukimura's counterparts passed their booth again.

'Coffe?' the one with glasses asked confused.

'Of course not, you know I don't drink coffee, it's for Tanaka – she drinks it like no tomorrow. I don't see why,' the ginger replied with a shrug and a shake of her head.

'It's to stay awake, you should try it some time; it would do wonders to the ends of your assignments.'

The ginger laughed sarcastically. 'That's why I drink tea; higher concentration of L-theanine than caffeine in coffee, hence better effect. And the end of my assignments are just _fantastic_, thank you very much.'

Then they continued on to the counter and placed their orders.

'L-thea-what?' Akaya asked and rubbed the back of his head.

'L-theanine, also known as theanine, the component in tea that is thought to have a similar effect on the human brain that caffeine has,' Yaguu explained as he took a sip of his coffee. 'It's chemistry.'

'So it's okay that I have no idea what you just said, good,' Akaya sighed.

'Actually, Akaya, just because you're studying PE it doesn't mean you should ignore common knowledge,' Yanagi remarked.

'Yeah, yeah, I'll brush up on my chemistry knowledge next term anyway,' he grumbled and opted for watching the two women by the counter instead.

They had placed an insanely large order as the two of them needed to use a tray to get everything with them. Akaya spotted at least six cups of coffee and three plates filled with various biscuits and muffins as they got closer.

'You people are going to ruin me,' the ginger complained even though she smiled.

'Certainly,' came the immediate reply. 'However, you do spoil Sayuri with all those sweets; she's going to be jumping off the walls again.'

'Can't be helped, she's my weak spot.'

'Everything that's small and has big eyes is your weak spot.'

The ginger hushed her friend quickly with an amused expression. 'Don't let my enemies know!'

Before she could reply with some sarcastic comment, based on her expression, the short girl with pigtails suddenly circled the two. She was practically running in circles as she tried to grab a biscuit from the trays and talked so fast that neither of the guys could catch a word.

'Wait until we get to the table, Sayuri, or I'll cut your share in half,' the ginger said like she was scolding a child.

The short girl pouted but never ceased her moving; now she was jumping up and down instead as she talked. All the while the ginger nodded and hummed at some parts, clearly understanding what was said, and the one with glasses shook her head as she followed.

'That sounded like Jackal and Marui,' laughed Niou, not really caring if the girls overheard.

The mentioned two said nothing, only continued with their previous business of chugging down coffee and other forms of sugar before them with renewed concentration.

When the commotion from the girls' table and the shock for the guys of suddenly finding themselves almost looking in a mirror had settle down Yukimura had, by chance, glanced at his watch and seen it 11.42PM. He vaguely recalled some assignment he had but as Yanagi asked him about a book he had seen Yukimura read a few weeks back the thought left his mind until the day the assignment was due.

The ginger passed their table again with her phone pressed to her ear and was moving hurriedly towards the other end of the room. A minute later the one with the green glasses followed in her steps with a pen and paper, which she handed to her friend.

The two stayed by the door for a long time talking, laughing from time to time, while the short girl and dolled one bolted back and forth in the café again. When Akaya stood to get another round of coffee for the guys he had to dodge the two twice, only on this way to the counter. Though he was sure he was going to be run over on the way back he grinned at them as he leaned closer to the counter to give them room to pass, to which the shorter girl waved happily in thanks.

Akaya had just turned around with his arms full with everyone's orders when the ginger woman's phone rung once again; she had barely answered when she seemed to freeze for a moment. She made a short answer before she snapped it close and put it back in her pocket.

'Haruka, wake Tanaka,' her voice cut through the room, silencing everyone.

The tall woman nodded curtly once at her friend's serious tone and made a movement to her left. 'Wha-?' the bluish haired woman mumbled as she sat up straight, rubbing the back of her head and managing to make her tangled hair even more so.

'Tanaka,' the ginger called for her attention, her voice holding no less force than previously. 'Your sister is giving birth, get a move on.'

Not a moment later the sleepy woman, together with the previously running women, was bolting through the glass doors.

'Yuka,' the ginger addressed the calm woman who had come with the two energetic women who had just left the building. 'Do you mind driving them? Sayuri and Eiko are too high on sugar to do anything else than running around and Tanaka…'

'Wouldn't be able to drive in a straight line even if the car was running on rails,' finished the woman with a laugh and pushed the doors open while nodding. 'I'll leave the rest to you then.'

'Please do,' the woman in glasses said before she followed her ginger friend towards the table to clean up.

'… Definitely buchou,' Akaya said, dazed at the discovery.

'No kidding there,' agreed Niou, looking every bit of shocked as the others.

No more was able to be said before the ginger woman and the tallest in the group passed their table again, the one with glasses only three steps behind.

'I want a nephew or niece too,' the ginger sighed dreamingly. 'Taru-kun is so sweet, how is he, by the way?'

'He's fine, and he's only sweet to you because he's head-over-heels for you, always been. He's a pain to anyone else,' the tall woman replied.

'Nonsense! He's a sweet kid, how old is he now? Ten?'

'Sixteen, actually.'

'No! Really? But he was so small last time I saw him!'

'He's short for his age, quite odd thinking about the fact that my brother is even taller than me, must have gotten it from his mother. You're better of being a single child; trust me. Besides, Taru is pretty much your nephew anyway.'

'But he's yours, really,' the ginger sighed again as they dumped the trash in the bin not far from the guys' booth.

'Asami, Haruka,' the woman in glasses addressed them as she walked past them towards the glass doors.

'Coming,' the ginger sang as she grinned at the taller woman who was shaking her head.

As the three left a heavy silence settled over the café, leaving not only the guys staring after them but also the workers.

'This was, by far, the weirdest Starbucks visit I have ever experienced,' Marui finally stated and stood up.

'No kidding,' Niou said as they all followed suit and left the café in silence.

'I'm not taking the nightshift again, ever,' one of the baristas commented as the doors swung shut behind the last customers and none of his co-workers felt like they could disagree with him; it _had_ been a weird night.


End file.
